Woman arrested and jailed for 1 day for not returning a vhs tape she rented 9 years ago

If this has bee posted I apologize.

A woman in South Carolina went to the police station to report a crime and when they ran her name through the system she had a warrant for not returning the movie "Monster in law" 9 years ago.. She was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor, spent a night in jail and had to post a 2000$ bond to be released.

I can't think of a bigger waste of taxpayers money and police time then to arrest and jail a woman over a 5$ video rental from 2005.

intellihub.com...

WHNS reported that victim Kayla Michelle Finley went to the Pickens County Jail in the northwestern tip of the state Thursday to report an unspecified crime, but instead got charged with one herself after they ran her name through their database and realized she had a warrant for not returning a VHS 9 years ago.

Only people who'll survive this transformation will be the people most like robots. This is good because they'll be able to work with the AI robots better. This will allow "human" civilization to better exploit the benefits of AI robotics.

In the future there'll be a lot more rules how you have to live and where and so on. Many of the freedoms we think we enjoy today will be taken away for our own safety. Our children will be much more "beautiful" and "intelligent".

The people in the future will view us as primitive and ignorant. I do believe they'll celebrate some people and customs, but only those things which make sense to them. The rest they'll bury, ignore or scorn. Much like us.

It's messed up that the rental place initially reported a lost tape as a crime. I could understand if it was like 50 tapes but one single tape?

It's messed up that the cops are sitting on 9 year old warrants. If you arent going to do your job and serve said warrant why bother getting it in the first place or why not purge it after X number of years?

Great examples of two pandemic issues. One is a private company or individual looking to the police to solve their petty issues and the other is PD that isnt doing its job and/or backlogging crazy dead weight making their office very inefficient.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


If this woman gets even a mediocre lawyer, this crap will be thrown out so quick you might whiplash from it. Heck, even a public defender would probably get her off. Unfortunately now the woman has to put up money for a lawyer and all the other expenses and life destroying parts of handling a criminal case. At least it's only a misdemeanor.

thisguyrighthere
It's messed up that the rental place initially reported a lost tape as a crime. I could understand if it was like 50 tapes but one single tape?

It's messed up that the cops are sitting on 9 year old warrants. If you arent going to do your job and serve said warrant why bother getting it in the first place or why not purge it after X number of years?

Great examples of two pandemic issues. One is a private company or individual looking to the police to solve their petty issues and the other is PD that isnt doing its job and/or backlogging crazy dead weight making their office very inefficient.

The other is private companies using the police to create their business. Never forget that the prison system now depends on the police prosecuting things such as this so they can turn a profit.

God bless the land of the free.

Carp. I better not show up in Venice Beach, CA anytime soon. I have a jaywalking ticket from '88. I was a college student, had to be at the airport in 2 hours, dad said he'd take care of it - which he did by ignoring it.

I would think there would be some kind of Statute of Limitations on this type of misdemeanor.

2nd

This is just a glimpse into future America where the corporate structure determines the laws that the citizens adhere to.


However I hope the blow back on the tape rental place puts them out of business.

I think it's a just and fair punishment.... she rented MONSTER IN LAW!!!!

LockNLoad
I would think there would be some kind of Statute of Limitations on this type of misdemeanor.

2nd

I might be mistaken but I believe the statute of limitations runs as long as nobody has been charged. Once you've been charged the clock stops and the limit will never be reached.

So when the warrant for her arrest was issued the clock stopped.

The only reason they did that was to punish her for making them do paperwork. Why else would you run wants on someone who comes in to report a crime?

eta: it might be interesting if she charged them with looking her up in NCIC with no cause. Don't they have to have some sort of reason to do that? Seems like it's a felony if they use it to just go fishing.

jonnywhite
Only people who'll survive this transformation will be the people most like robots. This is good because they'll be able to work with the AI robots better. This will allow "human" civilization to better exploit the benefits of AI robotics.

In the future there'll be a lot more rules how you have to live and where and so on. Many of the freedoms we think we enjoy today will be taken away for our own safety. Our children will be much more "beautiful" and "intelligent".

The people in the future will view us as primitive and ignorant. I do believe they'll celebrate some people and customs, but only those things which make sense to them. The rest they'll bury, ignore or scorn. Much like us.

edit on 18-2-2014 by jonnywhite because: (no reason given)

Sounds like we only got 2 options

burning it to the ground;

everyone going gay;


The future is ours.

Not a bad sentence for theft.

reply to post by usernameconspiracy


YEah and sadly a misdemeanor for theft keeps people from getting jobs in even min wage work. It's awful. Poor lady.

This could be very easily defended and thrown out if it was in the UK. The first meaningful word in the theft act in the UK is 'dishonestly', dishonesty would be very difficult to prove here, as the lady in question should simply say that she 'lost' the VHS tape. Losing something is not dishonest, therefore this is not theft. This is a civil matter between the rental company and the lady. Case dismissed.

reply to post by yorkshireman


You're quite right but I suppose to depends on State laws in the US as to the definition of Theft.

Here is a page with what appears to be the State Law for South Carolina regarding theft/fraud of all types. Some funny stuff too like dealing with the theft of Dogs or Turpentine...

To be fair it's not a $5 video rental. She kept the tape. The rental stores pay a lot more for the tapes than individuals do for home use and if it was popular at the time, they also lost the future rental fee's. It could easily have run well into hundreds of dollars in losses for the store.

If they don't report it, how do they stop people from stealing? I'm really depressed how many people make excuses for stealing. If it was lost, an honest person worthy of defending would have gone to the store and made it right with them.

Again...............
Soviet Socialist States OF America

Blaine91555
To be fair it's not a $5 video rental. She kept the tape. The rental stores pay a lot more for the tapes than individuals do for home use and if it was popular at the time, they also lost the future rental fee's.

That is not exactly true. For the most part they pay a bit less than the typical consumer on most titles. Yes there is a tier of releases that are "rental" priced but that model has diminished to almost nonexistence. But yes she cost them future rentals she should have to pay for the tape and the matter dropped. Normally once late rentals exceed the cost of the tape or DVD a new copy is purchased and put on the shelves.